The specific goal of this project is to distinguish and predict those families in which alcoholism is continued over several generations. In our view there are crucial social variables within the normal configuration of families which, under certain circumstances, encourage the repetition of alcoholism in succeeding generations. Because families tend to repeat selected interactional behaviors, we have suggested that these important behaviors be termed family rituals and that the corresponding conjoint cognitive processes be termed family myths. We understand family myths and rituals to be underlying properties of all families which establish a sense of family identity and continuity. These rituals and myths are then transmitted through family traditions, family folk tales, family heroes, and particular interactional behaviors involved in normal daily living. We have postulated that the incorporation of one member's alcoholism into an otherwise normal family ritual and myth structure will be a crucial variable which will predispose that family to continue the alcohol problem into the succeeding generation. We have labelled this family type as subsumptive, since the alcoholism has been subsumed into normal family processes. This family type is distinguished from the distinctive family where the alcohol abuse of one parent has not been incorporated into the family ritual and myth substructure but remains at the periphery of intrafamily interactions. Therefore, our principal hypothesis is that these two family types will have differing rates of alcoholism in the children's generation. Determining the family type, subsumptive or distinctive, is the task of interviewing conducted in the project. During the final months of the project we intend to blind our dossiers (with regard to alcoholism in the children's generation) and test our hypothesis on a "naive" expert. If our social variable is both accurately described and crucial, that expert should be able to predict which families have alcoholism continuity.